The weekly roundup: 21 October 2026
DRAFT, not for publication until approved.
This week in brief
- Ofsted's new inspections get their first independent check. Most leaders surveyed found inspection respectful and their report card accurate. Workload is still a concern.
- The data season is under way. Provisional KS4 results are out, KS2 combined attainment has edged up to 63%, and school-level tables follow in December (KS2) and February (KS4).
- PISA 2025 puts England above the OECD average in all three subjects, with science up significantly on 2022. Maths is flat.
DfE and policy
KS4 provisional results published (15 October). DfE has released national and local authority GCSE results for summer 2026, broken down by pupil characteristics, with downloadable data. The revised release with school-level tables is due in February 2027. Use this release for national and local context now; don't build school comparisons until February. DfE: KS4 performance 2025/26
KS2 2026: up a point, but writing is the sticking point. 63% met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined (62% in 2025, 65% in 2019). The disadvantage gap index widened from 3.16 to 3.22, and writing is now the subject that most often stops pupils meeting the combined standard. 8.1% of pupils were working below the curriculum in at least one subject (5.1% in 2019). School-level data and the return of KS1–KS2 progress measures are due in December 2026. DfE: KS2 attainment 2025/26 (provisional)
Opinion
Our take: DfE says the rise in pupils working below the curriculum "may partly explain" the gap to pre-pandemic levels. That's a hedged explanation, not a tested one. If writing is your bottleneck, it's worth looking at before December's progress measures arrive.
PISA 2025: England's national report. England scored 516 in science, 497 in reading and 492 in maths, all significantly above the OECD averages (482, 461 and 463). Science is significantly up on 2022 (503). Reading isn't significantly different from previous cycles. Maths matches 2022 (492) but is significantly below 2018 (504). DfE: PISA 2025 national report for England (PDF) · publication page
Opinion
Our take: Be careful with "above the OECD average". The average itself fell: the OECD trend average dropped from 477 to 463 in reading and from 475 to 465 in maths between 2022 and 2025, per the report. Some of England's lead is down to other countries falling, not England improving. Reading holding steady while that happened still counts for something. Maths hasn't recovered to 2018.
The white paper's targets, as a reminder. Every child achieving and thriving (February 2026, corrected April) sets out schools and SEND reform alongside a plan to recruit 6,500 more teachers. Its stated ambition for this generation of school leavers is to average a grade 5 or higher across GCSEs and to halve the disadvantage gap. DfE says halving the gap means disadvantaged pupils achieving around a full grade higher in each GCSE, which is over 30,000 more disadvantaged pupils passing English and maths at grade 4 or above each year. The technical annex turns this into numbers: a national average Attainment 8 score of 50 (from 46.0 in 2024/25), and the KS4 disadvantage gap halved from 15.5 points (2024/25) to 7.7. DfE says the 50 is a national ambition, not a school-level target. DfE: Every child achieving and thriving · white paper PDF: executive summary p.11 and technical annex
Opinion
Our take: These are aspirations, not outcomes. The KS2 gap index moving the wrong way this year shows how big the task is.
Curriculum timeline and shorter GCSE exams, for planning. The government's response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review commits to a revised national curriculum published in 2027 for first teaching in 2028, and updated GCSEs for first teaching from 2029. It also proposes a revised Progress 8/Attainment 8 model, with a consultation to follow. Students currently sit 24–31 hours of exams at the end of Year 11. As GCSEs are reformed, DfE will work with Ofqual and the exam boards to cut that by 2.5–3 hours on average for a student taking eight or nine GCSEs. DfE: CAR government response · response PDF
Opinion
Our take: 2.5–3 hours is a modest cut. England would still be well above the countries DfE uses for comparison, such as Ireland (16 hours) and New Zealand (18 hours).
Ofsted
First independent evaluation of the new inspections (9 October). IFF Research surveyed providers inspected between January and April 2026: 88% said inspection was respectful, 76% collaborative and 74% that it took account of context, and 81% said their report card was accurate. Workload and wellbeing remain concerns. The full report is due in 2027. Ofsted/IFF: interim findings
Opinion
Our take: This is self-report from schools inspected early, some of them volunteers, so the sample may be skewed. The figures don't show a comparison with the old system, even though the press release headline suggests one.
This term's rules: the September 2026 update. This is the first annual update to the toolkits and operating guides, in force from September. Ofsted will publish guidance on where the data shown beside report cards comes from, and is removing national data comparisons for special schools. Updates will now happen every year. Ofsted blog, 12 June 2026
Scale of the rollout. Ofsted's annual report says 1,420 state-funded schools were inspected under the new framework between April 2025 and March 2026 (1,380 full inspections). Over the same period it carried out 260 investigations into unregistered schools, issued 23 warning notices and recruited 215 new inspectors. Ofsted annual report 2025–26
What's graded: six areas, with inclusion among them. Ofsted's consultation outcome cut the number of graded school evaluation areas from 8 to 6: inclusion, curriculum and teaching, achievement, attendance and behaviour, personal development and well-being, and leadership and governance. Safeguarding is judged separately as 'met' or 'not met'. Schools with early years or sixth forms also get separate areas for those. Ofsted: consultation response
Explaining report cards to parents. Report cards have no overall judgement. Each evaluation area gets a grade on a five-point scale (exceptional, strong standard, expected standard, needs attention, urgent improvement), and safeguarding is marked 'met' or 'not met'. The new grades can't be compared with the old ones. Ofsted: understanding report cards
Evidence and research
EEF Guide to Inclusive Teaching. The guide pairs universal approaches (explicit instruction, feedback, scaffolding, relationships, predictable routines) with carefully chosen adaptations and targeted support. It warns that more adaptations don't on their own mean more learning. It comes with implementation and CPD resources. EEF guide · press release Deadline: Mainstream schools receiving the Inclusive Mainstream Fund must publish an inclusion strategy by 31 December 2026, as a condition of grant. DfE provides a template. DfE: developing an inclusion strategy
Opinion
Our take: A useful audit question is whether your adaptations are adding learning or just adding paperwork. With inclusion now a graded Ofsted area, the strategy and the classroom practice behind it need to match.
Year 2 maths reasoning trial (16 September). In an EEF trial of the Mathematical Reasoning programme (238 schools, 6,291 pupils), Year 2 pupils made one month's additional progress in maths, and pupils eligible for free school meals made two. Teachers swapped one maths lesson a week for a reasoning session over 12–15 weeks, after online training. EEF gives the findings a 'high' security rating. EEF press release
Opinion
Our take: The trial ran at scale with online training, which makes it a realistic option for KS1, especially given this year's gap figures.
Growing apart: the disadvantage gap from EYFS to 16–19. EPI's report for EEF tracks the attainment gap across phases. It asks whether the gap is driven more by who pupils are or by where they learn and live. The analysis is associational, not causal. EPI
MATs: what the data can and can't say. FFT Education Datalab finds 49% of schools and 55% of pupils are now in MATs. Raw attainment comparisons between school types are misleading because intakes differ. 87% of inadequate schools that joined a MAT are now good or outstanding, but there's no counterfactual for that figure. Across the ten largest MATs, about 22% of variation in attainment lies between trusts; the rest is between schools within the same trust. FFT briefing (PDF)
Opinion
Our take: For trust leaders, within-trust variation is the bigger lever.
Workforce picture. NFER's 2026 summary brings together its reports on early years, support staff, FE teachers and school teachers: numbers, recruitment, retention, pay and conditions. It's useful context for the 6,500-teachers pledge. NFER summary (PDF)
Other: international
OECD PISA 2025 policy messages. The OECD recommends favouring depth over breadth, keeping curriculum, teaching and assessment aligned, limiting non-instructional device use in lessons, strengthening teachers' practical teaching skills, and using AI in a targeted way. These are OECD recommendations, not direct findings. OECD PISA 2025 Vol I
Teacher Knowledge Survey. The OECD tested teachers' general pedagogical knowledge in 8 countries (England did not take part). Higher knowledge is linked to more time spent teaching and less on discipline. The OECD itself warns that the cross-country link with PISA is not causal. OECD report (PDF)
Ontario goes back to basics. Ontario has set province-wide secondary grading standards: 65% classwork, 20–25% final evaluations, and written exams back in most courses. Attendance and participation will count for 10–15% of grades, and an assessment review is under way. There's no outcome evidence yet. Government of Ontario
AERO on implementation. Australia's AERO has published a discussion paper on light-touch, scalable support for putting evidence-based teaching into practice. It's based on practice in schools, not trials. It could be a useful model if you're implementing EEF guidance. AERO
Dates for the diary
- December 2026: KS2 school-level data and the return of KS1–KS2 progress measures (DfE)
- February 2027: KS4 revised and school-level data (DfE)
- 31 December 2026: Inclusion strategy due for schools receiving the Inclusive Mainstream Fund (DfE)
- 2027: Full Ofsted/IFF evaluation report, and the revised national curriculum (IFF, CAR)